Posts Tagged ‘pinball tournament’

Each player is allowed to use one flipper in the Split Flipper Valentine’s Day Pinball Tournament at Reciprocal Skateboards. Photo via PinballNYC.com

Happy Valentine’s Day! One of the day’s most playfully romantic events is New York City Sport Flipper Association’s Split Flipper Valentine’s Day Tournament for Couples. According to PinballNYC.com, the event starts at 4:30pm at Reciprocal Skateboards in the East Village.

This is a couple’s tournament and competitors will play with a partner. Each player is allowed to use one flipper button during the game. The qualification period will start at 4:30pm will end at 9 pm (and will run concurrently with NYCFSA Winter Pin-Golf). The cost will be two dollars for each qualifying attempt. Each qualifying attempt is for a high score with no extra balls played.

The top four qualifying pairs will advance to the finals and play a best of four games series for high score with no extra balls played.

The format for the finals: 3 points for a win 2 points for second 1 point for third 0 points for fourth.

The partners with the most points at the end of the four matches will win the prize pool. If there are ties for first place, then a single tie-breaker match will occur.

Located at 402 East 11th Street, Reciprocal Skateboards has nine pinball machines including the Who’s Tommy Pinball Wizard, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Revenge from Mars and Spider-Man.

Pinball Machines at The Creek and The Cave in Long Island City, Queens, which is hosting their first Annual Pinball Tournament on February 16. Photo by Val Cihak

Queens’ first-ever pinball tournament is coming up on Sunday at The Creek and The Cave in Long Island City. The bar, restaurant, lounge and comedy theater has seven pinball machines, including Star Trek Limited Edition, X-Men Pro and the Wizard of Oz. The club’s first annual pinball tournament on February 16th from 12 noon till 8pm was organized by Francesco La Rocca, who pioneered tournaments at New York City bars starting in 2009. For Sunday’s event, Francesco teamed up with Rebecca Trent, the owner of Creek and Cave and the owner/operators of the pinball machines.

The entry fee for the International Flipper Pinball Association (IFPA) sanctioned tournament is $10, with all money plus prizes paid out to the top 4 finishers. “It could be more if we have big turn out,” said Franceso, who told ATZ that 70 players had registered in advance. Of that number, more than half are newcomers to the NYC tournament circuit. The fact that their names are unfamiliar to the longtime New York City league player and tournament organizer points to the resurgence of pinball. From Modern Pinball NYC’s interactive showroom in Manhattan to New York City bars with one to several pinball machines, there are new opportunities for first-timers to become pinball wizards.

One of nine pinball machines at Jackbar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Photo via Jackbar

Qualification for Sunday’s Creek and Cave tournament will consist of one game on each machine (you must play with at least two other players), where top score overall will get 100 points, 2nd place 90 points, 3rd place 85 points, 4th place 84, etc. Each individual’s five scores (assuming there will be five machines in play) will be combined to determine their total point score. The top 16 players will go on to the next round and will be split in 4 groups of 4 players by their seeds. Players will then compete in a survival format until only one player is left in each group.

This weekend, Modern Pinball NYC, a new destination for pinball enthusiasts in Manhattan, will celebrate its grand opening with a couple of tournaments, including a Saturday benefit for the Food Bank for New York City. Located on Third Avenue at 26th Street, the pinball machine retailer and interactive showroom is a brand-new business model for the arcade, which outside of amusement parks is a vanishing breed.

Instead of paying per game at Modern Pinball, players buy time– $7.50 for a half hour, $10 for an hour, and $20 to play all day. The bonus is that whatever you spend can be applied to the future purchase of a pinball machine. The 30 machines currently at Modern Pinball range from beautifully refurbished games from the 1990s like The Addams Family, Fun House and Dr Dude to new titles from Stern and Jersey Jack Pinball.

When ATZ stopped by on Tuesday evening, we met pinball veterans who’d already made the place part of their schedule and passersby of all ages stopping to check it out. “It’s great family entertainment,” says co-owner Steve Zahler, who has fond memories of growing up playing pinball in the 1970s, when the games were everywhere–restaurants, skating rinks and Main Street arcades.

“Not like nowadays, when they’re mostly in bars,” says Zahler. “That’s why I didn’t want alcohol to be part of this business because I want to help bring pinball back.” His daughter and son, who are 6 and 9, are turning out to be pinball whizzes, but they’re lucky to have several machines at home. Zahler wanted to open a place where kids could play pinball with their friends and family, just as as he did growing up. Birthday parties and special event packages are among Modern Pinball’s offerings.

Players are encouraged to ask the staff, who include high-ranking tournament players and pinball enthusiasts, for tips and strategies. We were wowed to find out Zahler is the No. 1 ranked player in New York and New Jersey, 14th in the country and 27th in the world out of 21,000 tournament players! Steve Epstein, his partner at Modern Pinball is the co-founder of both the International Flipper Pinball Assn. (IFPA) and Professional and Amateur Pinball Assn.(PAPA) with Roger Sharpe. “We share the same philosophy about business, pinball and promotion,” says Zahler. “We have the same deep passion for pinball.”

With Modern Pinball, Epstein, who was the owner/operator of the Broadway Arcade aka “The Pinball Capital of the World” until it closed in 1996, is back in business. The place was legendary and is much missed. According to a 1985 article from the Times, Lou Reed held his wedding reception at Broadway Arcade, and Broadway stars, cast members and members of orchestras ran in during breaks between performances and during intermissions. At Modern Pinball, we met one of those musicians, a French horn player named Michael, who was ecstatic to have a place to play again. “I haven’t played pinball in 15 years,” he said.